Buskers of Grafton Street, Dublin Ireland 1983

Making one of Dublin’s most famous thoroughfares pedestrian presents street performers with a new stage. Since the pedestrianisation of Grafton Street, the area has become a location for buskers and street performers to showcase their talents to a new audience. Starting at St Stephen’s Green, Carolyn Fisher walks the length of Grafton Street to investigate the sights and sounds on show. Outside Woolworths she stops to watch a busker playing an acoustic guitar and singing the rock and roll standard ‘Kansas City’. Further down the street, performers from the Grapevine Arts Centre are amusing spectators with their mimed antics. The group includes Little John Nee performing as Charlie Chaplin who dances with Carolyn and some of the braver members of the public. When the performance ends he passes round a tin, and with the assistance of a replica gun, encourages spectators to donate money. The performers depart Grafton Street together and, still in character, they walk through Merchant’s Arch and across the Ha’penny Bridge. An ‘Ireland’s Eye’ report broadcast on 26 January 1983. The reporter is Carolyn Fisher.